Michael Brissenden presents AM Monday to Friday from 8:00am on ABC Local Radio and 7:10am on Radio National. Join Elizabeth Jackson for the Saturday edition at 8am on Local Radio and 7am on Radio National.

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Tuesday 23 October 2001

AM is Australia's most informative morning current affairs. It covers the stories each morning that the other current affairs teams follow for the rest of the day. Below is the program summary with links to transcripts and audio (if available).

Boat tragedy emphasizes people smuggling risks

The risks taken by would-be refugees paying passage to Australia on leaky people smugglers' boats have been highlighted by the sinking of a vessel off Indonesia, with the deaths of more than 350 people on board.

Election campaign resumes after troop farewell

With asylum seekers again in the news after the sinking of that boat off Indonesia, John Howard will today take the election fight up to Kim Beazley's plan for a coastguard - part of the opposition's proposal for combating people smuggling.

Polling boost for Labor

Two new opinion polls this morning show ALP support on the rise. The AC Nielsen poll in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age shows the gap narrowing, with the Coalition still ahead but only just on a two party preferred basis, by 51 per cent to 49. The Newspoll in The Australian newspaper shows the same trend.

Beazley reacts to polls

Anthrax deaths

The anthrax outbreak among American postal workers has taken a grave turn today, with news of another case of the lethal 'inhalation anthrax' and two suspected deaths. Washington DC General Hospital has been swamped with hundreds of postal workers now being tested for the disease.

Pakistan withdraws support for Northern Alliance

Despite growing US and Russian support for Afghanistan's Northern Alliance fighters, Pakistan is making is crystal clear that the alliance remains unacceptable as an alternative government to the Taliban.

Call for new people's bank

Will Bailey was, from 1984 to 1992, the managing director of the ANZ Bank. Now retired, he's begun lobbying for an inquiry into the need for a people's bank to serve the 20 per cent of people that he says the profit making banks can't help.

Postal votes crucial for federal election

When elections are as tight as this one is, postal votes are crucial. So this time around both major parties are engaging in a bid for postal ballots that is more aggressive than usual, and voters seem confused. That the parties are permitted to facilitate postal votes, as they call it, at all is also a source of long standing frustration for the Electoral Commission.

Farmers react to court decision

The Federal Court has stopped a North Queensland lychee farmer from electrocuting flying foxes to protect his crop. It's a decision the Queensland growers say has left farmers unsure of what they can and can't do to protect their livelihoods.

IRA on brink of disarmament?

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has revealed that he and Martin McGuinness have urged the Irish Republican Army to take what they've termed a 'ground breaking step' to break the current impasse. It's considered unlikely that Mr Adams would have made his appeal public without having first had a positive response from the Army.